Shehbaz Sharif’s medical mystery tour fuels speculation about resistance to Field Marshal Asim Munir’s coronation
would he dare to stall without at least some quiet backing from senior ocers?
Dissent is not confined to the army. Air Chief Marshal Zafar Ahmad Babar Sidhu is reportedly incensed Munir will now wield authority over the skies, particularly after the air force’s confidence about its showing in the May Four-Day War. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s legal fraternity is furious. Recent changes have sharply curtailed judicial independence and given the government the final say in appointing judges. Many lawyers view this as an attack on the last major institution that had occasionally resisted political and military pressure.
At the same time, Pakistan’s Army is spreading the story that its nightmare of a multi-front conflict is inching closer to reality. The army has long feared being trapped between India and Afghanistan. As veteran columnist Maleeha Lodhi writes: “An early conflict with India and continuing tensions over Kashmir were accompanied by irredentist claims of successive Afghan governments, who questioned” the British-demarcated Durand Line border.
FIGHTING ON THREE FRONTS
But Lodhi argues today’s situation is worse. Pakistan is now eectively fighting on three fronts. Alongside India and Afghanistan, it is facing a relentless campaign by the Afghanistan-based
TTP. The TTP slips across the porous border, attacks Pakistani forces and retreats to sanctuaries where the army cannot pursue them. Frustration in Islamabad has grown to the point that Pakistan recently bombed Kabul. Two simultaneous peace processes, one mediated by Turkiye and Qatar, the other by Saudi Arabia, are under way to stabilise relations between Islamabad and Kabul. So far, neither has yielded results.
It seems inevitable Munir will soon have to deploy the full might of the army to push back the TTP. That will be a long, dicult fight. And, predictably, Pakistan continues to accuse India of quietly backing the group.
Amid all this comes another twist in the Imran Khan saga. For weeks, his family had been denied access to him, fuelling speculation he was gravely ill or even dead. But on Tuesday there was a dramatic shift when authorities allowed his surgeon sister, Uzma Khan, to meet him inside Adiala Jail. Analysts say the army and government may be tightening the screws to push Khan towards exile, as they did with Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Many Pakistan-watchers now believe Khan has been eectively neutralised and no longer commands the overwhelming street power he once enjoyed.
Even so, perhaps the gravest threat comes from within Pakistan’s own power structure. Has Munir overreached? By trying to consolidate unprecedented authority, has he antagonised too many elements, including the air force, parts of the army, the judiciary, political players and the public? One thing is clear. This saga is far from over and Pakistan has rarely oered more dramatic political theatre.
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